Got through again !!!!

Day 14 To Cordoba 15 March
Drive of 180 miles to Cordoba, where we planned to end up but only one campsite between Laujar and here. Last time hare we stayed in the Parador, half a kilometre further out of town than we are. For those of you who don’t know Paradors are not, despite the publicity, all converted castles or monasteries and old romantic buildings. They are state run and the one here is a modern block hotel with as I recall, surly state employees. Easily forgiven however for the wonders of the Mesquita. This really is one of those places to see before you die. A huge mosque, several football piches in size, built over centuries, which has had a cathedral built in the middle of it. Just unbelievable.
Day 15 In Cordoba 16 March
Our campsite is a good one about 15 minutes walk from the centre of Cordoba, fairly empty in low season. Before we left we’d heard that there might be a problem with the electrics on sites and bought a tester. It turned out to be a wise move. So far we’ve used six sites and only one has had good electrics. For those of you who don’t want the technical stuff, skip the rest of this para. So, that bored ? Anyway, here in Spain they use double pole switching which means that when they switch off, the power is off on both cables so they often don’t take too much trouble with which wire (of 2) they make the live one. In England we have single pole switching which turns off the power on the live wire. However, when the Spanish electrician hasn’t taken enough trouble you get reverse polarity, which means that when us Brits turn off, the power comes right round the circuit, through whatever you’re using and is switched off on the ‘wrong’ side of the switch. You can get round it by turning the plug upside down if you can use a standard Spanish plug. In Cordoba they excelled themselves by managing not to have any earth at all. I’m no electrician but this is my understanding of it.
On to Cordoba which is an attractive city with as I said ,one mega attraction, the Mesquita. Cordoba has no direct flights from England so probably isn’t as well known as it should be. We did find some very good gardens which we’d not seen before and generally wandered about all day, making sure we had lunch in a Spanish rather than a tourist part of town. It was an unexciting gentle day in the sunshine, sitting down when we wanted, having a café con leche when we wanted. Only Museum was the Museo Julio Romero de Torres. Turned that that a number of things like the museum and gardens are free on Friday ! Unplanned serendipity.
We knew that eating was later than we’re used to but as restaurants don’t open until 9.00 pm we think eating out at lunchtime and producing our own evening meal is going to suit us better.

Day 16 In Cordoba 17 March
Later start today but decided to see parts of town we didn’t reach yesterday. like the Palacio Viennes with it’s twelve courtyard gardens.
Being a vegetarian isn’t difficult as long as you don’t mind eating meat. Heather decided on a Macaroni Cheese (traditional Andalusian fare) at lunch and made a point of asking the waiter if it had meat “sin carne” he said. Halfway through, it turned out to have chopped up ham in it, so she pointed this out to the waiter who couldn’t care less. So when the bill came she said she wasn’t paying for it. Much to my surprise from my position under the table, they took the bill away and replaced it with no charge for the Macaroni Cheese. A victory - of sorts, because H. didn’t get any lunch.

Day 17 To Fuente de Piedre 18 March
There are some lovely aspects of Spanish life but the national sport of dumping all their rubbish everywhere in the countryside or town isn’t one of them. Any bit of spare space has a pile of rubbish, often builders stuff which isn’t surprising as most of the country appears to be a building site. Every town or village has masses of new building going on and the smallest village has a by-pass.
We drove cross country to get here. A place with the largest natural inland lake in Andalusia It’s 1300 hectares, 21 kilometres around and it completely dries up in summer. Has shedloads of Flamingoes (I believe that is the correct collective noun), Black Winged Stilts and masses of others. Only had a relatively quick look on this Sunday afternoon but the oddest thing was the people. There are a number of hides and paths near us and there were dozens of families and young people walking, visiting the hides, appearing interested, but with hardly one pair of binoculars between any of them. There were some serious birders with telescopes, needed because the water is a long way off the shoreline already.
Our campsite has only 5 vans on it, 4 Brits and 1 Dutch. Most sites have been mostly French/German/Spanish.

Day 18 Fuente de Piedre 19 March
Decided to see a bit more of the lagoon and drove around on the route suggested at the Info. Centre. Couldn’t get nearer than about a mile from the water so apart from distant views of flamingoes really not much point to it. We did, however see a Marsh Harrier and a Black Kite. Went back to the hides to see what was there. I’ve decided that Black winged Stilts are like supermodels, they’re spindly, beeooutiful plumage and argumentative.

Day 19 Antequera 20 March
To Antequera, a town with some history as the Romans described it as ‘an ancient place’. Dolmens, worth seeing but not going to see as Dr Johnson said about the Giant’s Causeway. Very typical southern Spanish town, full of narrow streets, white houses, closed from 2 - 5 and a bullring. Very cold north wind.
Day 20 El Torcal 21 March
We hear from our neighbours on the next pitch - who happened to be our neighbours on the last site too that most of Spain has snow and that Spanish TV has virtually nothing else on. Lorries stuck at Burgos so we hear. It was very cold last night, we’re at 1600 feet and there’s a lazy north wind that’s going straight through us. So naturally we decide to go higher, to the top of El Torcal at about 4000 feet. This is a huge limestone area, bursting up through the surrounding landscape and one of the best Spanish karst (eroded limestone) areas. It is truly fantastic, with pinnacles and horizontal slabs, vertical grooving and BIG. Masses of limestone pavement and tumbled rocks. One of the most stunning landscapes I’ve ever seen - even better than Canvey Island. Unfortunately we’ve too early for most of the flora although towards the end of our walk we find three different Orchids in an area you could throw a bath towel over. One looks like a cross between Early Spider and Bee (I’m not suggesting it is, that’s just what it looks like), Lady Orchid and one that’s a bit like Monkey Orchid but not quite. The area has some very specialised Orchids among the 25 or so that are found here, so who knows, they just look wonderful.
We hope not to get snow, we’re told it’s an offence not to have snow chains.
Day 21 To Antequera 22 March
Quiet day into Antequera and back - about 10 miles. Had a restaurant recommended for lunch which was 3 courses plus wine and bread for 6 euros or about £4 each. Not exactly cordon bleu but perfectly adequate. We are surprised at how cheap food is here and often seem to get a shopping session in a small shop for about £4 or so.
The phone has become tiresome, we can’t seem to get any calls made without it costing a fortune but a card has been bought for a further 20 euros which should sort it out.
Day 22 23 March
Drove to series of reservoirs in more limestone area which changes dramatically and very suddenly (you can see the line) to sandstone. Suddenly began to see birds here after a short walk from our campsite, which appears to be a young persons site with lots of tents and climbers. There are vertical limestone cliffs appearing to be up to 1000 feet from the base.
Saw our first Hoopoe of this trip today on the drive here plus Golden and probable Bonellis Eagles, Blue Rock Thrush, Crag Martins and Choughs all from the same spot. Very scenic and the site of the Caminino de los Reyes which is an abandoned and totally mad walkway attached in many places to the bare rock face hundreds of feet up. We saw climbers making their way along from one abandoned stanchion to another.
Day 23 24 March
Had planned to go south bit instead went along a road along a valley rising to a viewpoint. Stopped halfway for a walk which was 100 yards of wild country and then spread out farms and houses for an hour or so. Fabulous scenery but no wildlife interest of note. Almost back to the van and heather saw one interesting plant by the side of the track. In about 20 minutes in an area no bigger than a squash court we found half a dozen Orchids we’d never seen before including Mirror, Yellow Bee and we think Pink Butterfly. If you’re not a flower person it won’t mean much but to us it was tremendous. This was on the sandstone area, smoothly weathered just above us and looking very different from the limestone. Visited some splendid ruins called Bobastro, just hacked out of the stone and found more Mirror Orchids.
Day 24 25 March
Decided to head for Ronda and learnt that a phrase not to be used is “let’s just go through the middle and see what it looks like”. We did at a place called Alora. Roadworks meant we were channelled into narrower streets until Heather stopped while I checked round a right angled bend to find a landrover possibly blocking the route. On deciding to try for the gap the van clutch kept slipping on what was too steep a slope, with a car parked in front. We were stuck, it was Sunday and we couldn’t move. Our recovery service isn’t open on Sundays, garages are closed on Sundays. Great, we’re alll doooomed ! Therefore went for a drink. 50 yards from the van we were directed into a bar run by two English people - Dave and Angie. Had a drink and when Dave returned he just said he’d pull us out with his four wheel drive. This is seriously falling on our feet. His car and the van had us out in a couple of seconds, we just squeezed past the landrover - it’s just as well there wasn’t an extra coat of paint on the van, and we were free ! Took the quick road for Ronda having had enough excitement.
Our 2nd gear has started crunching unless it’s treated very delicately. Not at all happy about it because only last year we had the gearbox redone with new 2nd, 3rd and 4th gears because it had started crunching then.

Day 25 26 March
After nearly 3 complete weeks of sunshine we wake on our campsite just outside Ronda to steady drizzle . It’s been quite cold again but we’re again at a little under 3000ft. There must be something wrong with us. Walk into town about a mile and a half as it eases off a bit. We’re meeting Liz and Malcolm Blackman for lunch and they’re driving up from Marbella for the day. Malcolm and I are old friends who worked at Barclays almost together on a number of occasions. As it’s rainy, the recommended restaurant overlooking the gorge seems a bit pointless and we find another in town, totally empty and lacking in atmosphere but good food and of course touristy prices. Very good to see Liz and Malcolm in such an unexpected place and we hear that it’s a lot warmer on the coast.

Day 26 27 March
Still drizzly but not so bad so go back to see Ronda. Apart from the gorge with it’s Choughs right in the middle of town it’s nothing special at all.
You’ll realise that this blog is updated sporadically. We haven’t found any wifi spots and internet cafes are few and far between. Several have had pc’s with no USB slots so we can’t download the blog from our memory stick and just check emails. The last two will not open our documents because it’s the wrong language (English rather than Spanish) and we’ve only been able to download pre-written emails as attachments instead of in the body of the email. Of course all the instructions are in Spanish.

Day 27 28 March
Off a little south today to see Tony Bates (Dorset Wildlife Trust Chairman) who’s visiting his brother who lives in one of the Andalususian white villages - I confess they all look white so I don’t know yet why they’re called that around here.